Qin Xiangnuan called out to Qin Xiangyang, but at this moment, she didn’t know what to say.
Qin Xiangyang’s smile was very bitter, and so was his heart, to the core.
"Don’t let Granny know about this," Qin Xiangyang hung his head, also feeling a powerless helplessness, "Granny is old, she can’t withstand these things."
"Brother, don’t worry, I know," Qin Xiangnuan agreed, but in her heart, an inexplicable heaviness surfaced, fearing that this matter wouldn’t be easy to settle. She knew Hu Li all too well: relentless in achieving her goals, capable of any tactic. And there was Qin Guohua, their biological father; inevitably, he wouldn’t hesitate to use his authority over them, as well as Qin Xiangmei, the sister whose heart has always been full of schemes.
Regardless of whether Qin Xiangmei was the same person as in her past life, Qin Xiangnuan had a feeling that the name ’Qin Xiangmei’ was destined to be linked with her own, as siblings. In a previous life, she took away someone else’s opportunity; in this life, the deprived Qin Xiangmei might not live as well.
She interpreted all this as fate.
The next day, just as dawn broke and Qin Xiangnuan was still asleep in bed, she was awakened by a series of loud crashing noises.
What happened? She sat up abruptly, the noises outside still continuing; a loud clatter also caused her to jump.
She quickly got up, threw on some clothes haphazardly, and ran outside, only to see Qin Guohua, right in front of her, lifting a table and forcefully smashing it down. On the table were items like sunflower seeds, peanuts, and candies for the New Year, all scattered across the floor, along with cups shattered to pieces. Granny Lu was also frightened, standing to one side, rendered utterly unresponsive.
"This is my house, I’ll smash it if I want to, don’t think I don’t know," Qin Guohua picked up items to smash, yelling foul-mouthedly, "Today I’m going to properly teach those two little bastards, who gave birth to them?"
Qin Guohua glared hatefully at Qin Xiangnuan. This face that looked almost exactly like Du Ping’s, even not having seen it for years, he recognized at a glance. Especially those eyes, shockingly dark, causing his hand to tremble involuntarily. He detested that look, as well as the face it belonged to, especially after Hu Li told him yesterday, Qin Xiangyang already knew about their affair; if Qin Xiangnuan knew too, their disgraceful secret would become public knowledge, shaming him to no end.
"Damn girl, I’ll show you," he didn’t even see what he was holding and threw it straight at Qin Xiangnuan.
But Qin Xiangnuan didn’t dodge. If she wanted to, she could have easily gotten out of the way, but she didn’t.
All she heard was Granny Lu’s cry of alarm and then a sudden intense pain from her head, followed by a flood of red engulfing her vision. Yet she managed to curl her lips into a smile, a cold one.
And Qin Guohua, as if seeing a ghost, turned and ran outside.
Qin Xiangnuan touched her head, feeling that the red veil in front of her blocked her entire view.
"Nuannuan, Nuannuan..."
She heard Granny Lu calling her, but she couldn’t say a thing. She didn’t understand this feeling, as if she was about to die. Only that death, she had already experienced in her previous life, and in this one, she hadn’t thought of dying so soon. There was so much she hadn’t done yet; she hadn’t seen her big brother marry and establish himself, hadn’t gone to university, hadn’t made a piece of clothing she was satisfied with. Could it really be that her life was meant to end here.
She trembled for a moment, and all around her the world seemed like a red mist of blood.
Qin Guohua, indeed, had taken her life twice.
When she woke up again, she had no idea how much time had passed.
She turned her face and saw Jian Zhiqing sitting beside her, arms folded across his chest, lost in thought. Seemingly feeling her gaze, he turned his head and their eyes met.
He lowered his hands and came over, gently placing a hand on her forehead.
"There’s a big hole in your head, and you’ve got some concussion. The doctor said there might be some after-effects. Do you still recognize me?"
Qin Xiangnuan was about to speak but felt a sharp pain in her head, spreading through her body. She quickly closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to pass. Jian Zhiqing didn’t press her, but waited instead...
She weakly squeezed Jian Zhiqing’s hand, and her dry, reddened lips moved slightly.
"Want some water?" Jian Zhiqing asked tentatively.
Qin Xiangnuan nodded lightly, though even such a small gesture was extremely difficult for her.
Jian Zhiqing brought her a small cup of water and held it to her lips, but then he seemed to remember something, moved the cup away, and quickly opened a drawer. He took out a straw, put it into the cup.
Qin Xiangnuan bit the straw and started to sip the water slowly.
She didn’t drink quickly and wasn’t that thirsty, it was just more of a habit to have water.
After drinking half the cup, she became more alert and realized where she was: the white walls, the white blanket, the white windows—it was a hospital, and the strong smell of disinfectant was something that nobody liked but couldn’t avoid.
She also remembered something—Qin Guohua had hit her with something on her head. She didn’t know if she was lucky or unlucky to have ended up in the hospital because of it.
"Where’s Granny Lu?" Qin Xiangnuan wasn’t worried about herself, but rather about Granny Lu, who was elderly and might have been frightened by the incident.
"Don’t worry, Granny Lu is fine," said Jian Zhiqing, putting the cup on the table and pulling up a chair to sit down, "you better worry about yourself first. Your head was smashed open, are you feeling any dumber now?"
"I’m still quite clever," Qin Xiangnuan said after drinking some water, talking more now, and of course, there was also a sense of relief to have survived the ordeal.
It’s good to be alive, it’s good not to be dead, and it’s good to be able to do many things.
"Yes, you are clever," Jian Zhiqing said with a headache, tucking her hand under the blanket, "clever, yet you didn’t dodge. Did you really have to get hit hard enough to put a hole in your skull? You do realize it was your head that got hit; what if you had died? What would your old man do then?"
Qin Xiangnuan had no response. In fact, she didn’t know why she hadn’t dodged before. Perhaps she wanted such a desperate outcome—if she was going to suffer, so would Qin Guohua. She wanted him to lose his appetite, to sleep restlessly, to be plagued by nightmares, and she wanted the whole Qin Family to suffer, to not even think about targeting them again.